1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus which processes image data, represented by a digital signal, on the basis of a SIMD (Single Instruction stream Multiple Data stream) processor, an image processing method for the image processing apparatus, a control program to achieve the image processing method, and a recording medium on which the control program is stored.
2. Related Background Art
At present, as an image processing apparatus, a so-called MFP (MultiFunciton Printer) which is a multifunction machine composed of a copying machine, a facsimile machine, a printer, a scanner and the like is provided. In connection with this, a technique to achieve a high-speed and programmable image process by using a SIMD processor as an image processing unit in the MFP is disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,067,088.
Conventionally, in the MFP, when multivalued original image data read by a scanner is output to a binary printer, an error diffusion process to represent pseudo-halftone of the original image data might be performed. Here, the error diffusion process is a sequential process by which, on the basis of a binarization error occurred in case of binarizing a target pixel, multivalued data of a target pixel to be later binarized is corrected.
A technique to perform the error diffusion process by using a SIMD processing unit and the sequential process by using an auxiliary processing unit is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-274993.
However, in such a conventional example, since the auxiliary processing unit is necessary in addition to the SIMD processing unit to perform the sequential process such as the error diffusion process, a circuit size increases as a whole, and this causes an increase in cost. Moreover, it is also necessary to provide an interface circuit block between the SIMD processing unit and the auxiliary processing unit, a control block to control the internet circuit block, and the like, whereby the apparatus has the inefficient structure as a whole.